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Mar 19, 2017

I've done it! I've finished my first ever dress made from scratch (including the pattern). This project is actually a couple of months in the making now. I started last October when I was making my Star Wars skirt for the Comic Con in Berlin. The plan was to wear this dress on the second day of the Con, but it ended up on the failed projects pile... Until the girls from #naehdirwas (diyyourcloset) published the new topic for their monthly sewing challenge: pastel hell (Pastell Hölle). I knew I had to get out this project, but let's start at the beginning.I actually found the fabric at the thrift store and as with my Tie Fighter Skirt fabric it was originally a bedsheet. Here's how it looked before the transformation:Sorry about the crinkles, one of the least favorite things to do while sewing (and in general) is ironing.When I saw this bedsheet I knew instantly that I wanted to turn it into a skaterdress. And one of my favorite Youtubers Annika Victoria has a really simple tutorial for making a Circle Skirt Dress (aka Skater Dress). So I used this tutorial to make my pattern for the top part of the dress:I used this pattern to cut out the front and back pieces of the top, one piece for the front and two for the back.As you can see here I didn't iron the fabric until I really had to, which is when you start sewing. I guess some people would say you should iron before cutting out your pieces, but who does that ;)I sewed in dart in the front and cut out pieces from the leftover fabric to make the seams look nice (instead of using a lining), just sew, turn around and top stitch to make it look like the top has a lining.

The easiest part of this dress is making the circle skirt, because all you need to do is take your waist measures and divide them by 6,28 (Pi*2). Fold your fabric over twice and measure that number from the center as such:The you cut out the center hole and measure down from there the desired lenght of your skirt. As I was dealing with a rectagular shape I had to use the measure from the shortest side. After cutting that you're left with something that looks like this:After lining all the raw edges and sewing the top together things were looking pretty good:Unfortunately everything went terribly wrong from here. It was pretty late by this point and I was eager to finish the dress, so things got sloppy... the top did not fit at all, turns out I was a little too generous with the measurements and even after taking it in on the sides and sewing in a few more darts it was just so lumpy. On top of that I completely screwed up the zipper in the back. Apart from it being uneven on the top it was way too long and for some reason it curved to the right on the bottom:So that's when I almost scrapped it and threw it in the ever growing fix-it pile in my craft room.

I didn't get it out until two weeks ago where I completely took it apart again, undoing pretty much all of the stitches and most importantly removing the zipper.

Thankfully the new motivation through the #naehdirwas challenge motivated me to take my time with the remake of the dress and I was able to use all of the existing pieces to make a beautiful dress. Turns out even if you have made a pattern you have to constantly try on your garment and get help from others to pin everything in place while wearing it. Fortunately I have a husband who's willing to help out every now and then.

To complete the outfit I made a last minute tote bag out of the spare fabric. I really like the big butterfly seahorse which I stitched on top of my bag.I really like how the bag turned out and I'm glad I used interfacing to strengthen the lining fabric.

Now for the awkward outfit pictures, luckily my work is right at the river Spree and the Warschauer bridge which makes for a nice backdrop:Yeah.. I love having my picture taken.. not. It didn't help that there were a couple of my colleagues sitting outside for a smoke cheering me on.

Oh well, here's a couple more picture that we took after a diy workshop that was taking place at the Dawanda Snuggery later that evening. They got a tiny movie theatre in the back :DSilly pictures ;) K bye!

Mar 12, 2017

~Tiny haul from our tiny vacation between christmas and new years last year. Check out my last picturesque month for some impressions from our Nottingham minication. We only had a carry on luggage so my thrift store purchases had to be minimized. I did find a copy of The Fault in our Stars though, which I've wanted to read for ages. And we also found a box set of Horrible Histories, a really fun kids tv show which is literally about all the horrible things that happened in the past.
~ Got a new sewing machine <3 Found this beauty on ebay for a fracture of the original price
~ Caft room love! My restaurated The Walking Dead cabinet holds all of my fabrics and lots of other craft supplies. Finally got around to clean up this corner of our craft room.~ Pizza & wine love. Sometimes you just need to sit down with a girlfriend with a huge Pizza and three bottles of white wine :D~ I got to save a bunch of vegan cheese via Foodsharing and brought some to work to share with my colleagues.~ I just looove homemade sushi! I like to experiment with the ingredients as well, this time with pickled beetroot, it was pretty yummy,~ My brother and I reenacted a picture from our childhood for our mom's birthday. Good thing my dad keeps everything, so we could use the exact same chairs. I just had to go to the thrift store to find some sweaters that looked like the ones we wore back then.~ How do you make sure you're always carrying a towel as suggested by the Hitchhikers Guide through the Galaxy? Take this towel bag! There's a frood who really knows where his towel is.Made this bag for a colleague of mine, making of coming soonish.

~ Mighty Oaks showcase @ Lido~ Communion Night with Joseph J. Jones, Banfi & Dan Croll @ Fluxbau~ Island Records showcase with th incredible Sigrid @ Riverside StudiosSo many showcases in winter! Loved all of the acts, but especially Dan Croll & Sigrid, 5/5 Bazooka Points for these awesome two newcomers that you will hopefully hear from more in the next year.~ Pretty balloons at Lu's birthday party <3~ Made a pixel Jake and Finn as decoration for her present.~ Soo many of my friends are getting married this year! I am most excited about being the Maid of Honor at one of my oldest friends wedding in June, so excite!
~ Springtime is coming! Made this pretty colourful wreath to welcome the warmer weather with pastell tones and lots of (plastic) flowers.
~ I made these AT-AT prints a little while back with a handcut lino stencil and finally thought of a project to use them for!
~ For this project I used tea and watercolours to stain the prints to make them look weathered and "vintage", I'll try to post the entire project in an individual post someday.
~ Visited the registry's office once again in our final attempt to change our name. Took me an hour to drop off one missing document to complete the process. Here's hoping it all goes well! At least they have some cute bat pillars to lighten the mood.
~ Another showcase at work! Kensington stopped by to give us a little taste of their new album before playing the Lido later that day.
~ My favorite bookstore in Berlin had a big reopening event after a seemingly endless reconstruction. If you're near Friedrichstraße check out Dussmann, das Kulturkaufhaus! I got three books (Good Omen/Pratchett, Gaiman, The Man in the High Castle/Dick & Born a Crime/ Noah) and some awesome Edgar Allan Poe socks, the draw-string bag was a gift for all customers.